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Dermatitis : Contact, Atopic,... Sep 2023Stasis dermatitis (SD), an inflammatory dermatosis occurring on the lower extremities, is a cutaneous manifestation of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI). SD is... (Review)
Review
Stasis dermatitis (SD), an inflammatory dermatosis occurring on the lower extremities, is a cutaneous manifestation of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI). SD is associated with a significant burden of disease. Symptoms such as pain, swelling, and itching can be debilitating for patients, leading to poor sleep, loss of mobility, and the inability to perform daily activities, and can interfere with work and leisure activities. Moreover, SD is a progressive disease with serious secondary complications such as ulcerations, which increase the patients' morbidity, reduce their quality of life, and increase health care burden. Challenges in diagnosing patients may have both short- and long-term sequalae for the patients due to unnecessary treatment and management. In addition, misdiagnosis may result in hospitalizations, placing additional burden on health care professionals in terms of time and financial burden on the health care system. Compression therapy and leg elevation represent the mainstay of treatment for CVI; however, it is also difficult to self-manage, which places a substantial burden on patients and caregivers. Moreover, compression therapy may cause discomfort and exacerbate itching. Subsequent nonadherence may result in disease progression that places additional burden on the physicians who manage these patients and the health care system in terms of resources required and costs incurred. A large proportion of patients with SD develop allergic contact dermatitis because of innate immune signals and altered skin barrier predisposing to sensitization to topical prescriptions, over-the-counter medications, and compression devices used to treat SD. Other than topical corticosteroids, there are no approved pharmacological options to treat inflammation in SD.
PubMed: 37782143
DOI: 10.1089/derm.2022.0076 -
Journal of Urban Health : Bulletin of... Dec 2021Place-based interventions are increasingly implemented to address firearm violence. While research on the social determinants of health and criminological theories...
Place-based interventions are increasingly implemented to address firearm violence. While research on the social determinants of health and criminological theories suggest that the built environment significantly influences health outcomes and the spatial distribution of crime, little is known about the attraction between urban places and shootings. The present study adds to the literature on firearm violence and micro-place research by exploring the spatial dependence in a Midwest metropolitan area between shootings and bus stops, vacant properties, alcohol outlets, and other locations that have been theoretically or empirically linked to firearm violence. The G-function and Cross-K function are used to characterize the univariate clustering of shootings and bivariate attraction with other locations, respectively. Bus stops, blighted vacant properties, alcohol outlets, and businesses/residential locations participating in a public-private-community initiative to reduce crime exhibited significant locational dependence with shootings at short distances. Attraction between on-premises alcohol outlets and shootings was observed only during the night. No attraction was found between schools and shootings. The findings reaffirm the importance of place-based research-especially at the micro-place level-and suggest that certain urban places may be appropriate targets for interventions that modify existing physical and/or social structures.
Topics: Firearms; Humans; Residence Characteristics; Social Structure; Violence; Wounds, Gunshot
PubMed: 34755266
DOI: 10.1007/s11524-021-00586-3 -
Environmental Research Nov 2022Numerous scientific studies, applying different approaches, have provided evidence of the links between the environment and people's health. Green spaces have been the... (Review)
Review
Numerous scientific studies, applying different approaches, have provided evidence of the links between the environment and people's health. Green spaces have been the subject of research aimed at exploring their benefits as components of the urban environment. We investigated possible causal relationships between green spaces and health, with the aim of addressing the following question. Does the mere material presence of green spaces contribute to the health of people who live in its vicinity, or are the health-promoting qualities of green spaces attributed to the ability of people to actually see, access, and enjoy them? The latter view highlights the relational dimension of places, and it entails personal relationships with places which are imbued with psychological meaning and significance for those who visit and experience them. We reviewed relevant literature, comprising a total of 189 papers on this topic that have been published over the first two decades of this century. Our findings showed that the material aspects of green spaces, such as their abundance and proximity to residences, received much more attention in studies than their quality and characteristics. However, relational rather than material measures of green spaces demonstrated statistically greater positive impacts of green spaces on health. These findings indicate that both sensory stimuli and activities and feelings attached to green spaces are essential for better health outcomes. Incorporating a relational perspective of green place-thinking into the existing literature on green spaces and health could contribute to optimizing the positive effects of green spaces and thus to the creation of healthy and livable cities.
Topics: Cities; Health Status; Humans; Parks, Recreational
PubMed: 35970380
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113812 -
Journal of Public Health (Oxford,... Aug 2023Place-based health inequalities persist despite decades of academics and other stakeholders generating ideas and evidence on how to reduce them. This may in part reflect... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Place-based health inequalities persist despite decades of academics and other stakeholders generating ideas and evidence on how to reduce them. This may in part reflect a failure in effective knowledge exchange (KE). We aim to understand what KE strategies are effective in supporting actions on place-based determinants and the barriers and facilitators to this KE.
METHODS
An umbrella review was undertaken to identify relevant KE strategies. Systematic reviews were identified by searching academic databases (Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science) and handsearching. Synthesis involved charting and thematic analysis.
RESULTS
Fourteen systematic reviews were included comprising 105 unique, relevant studies. Four approaches to KE were identified: improving access to knowledge, collaborative approaches, participatory models and KE as part of advocacy. While barriers and facilitators were reported, KE approaches were rarely evaluated for their effectiveness.
CONCLUSIONS
Based on these four approaches, our review produced a framework, which may support planning of future KE strategies. The findings also suggest the importance of attending to political context, including the ways in which this may impede a more upstream place-based focus in favour of behavioural interventions and the extent that researchers are willing to engage with politicized agendas.
Topics: Humans; Health Status Disparities; Systematic Reviews as Topic; Social Determinants of Health; Geography, Medical
PubMed: 36451281
DOI: 10.1093/pubmed/fdac146 -
The Gerontologist Feb 2024Response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic required rapid changes to physical, social, and technological environments. There is a need to understand how...
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic required rapid changes to physical, social, and technological environments. There is a need to understand how independent-living older adults are adapting to pandemic-borne transformations of place and how environmental factors may shape experiences of aging well in the context of a public health emergency response.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
We conducted a photovoice study to examine the characteristics associated with aging in place. Our study investigated how independent-living older adults characterized aging in a "right" place approximately 1 year after the onset of the pandemic.
RESULTS
Six themes categorized into 2 groups capture how older adults describe a "right" place to age. The first category, "places as enactors of identity and belonging," describes the significance of places contributing to intimate relationships, social connections, and a sense of personal continuity. The second category, "places as facilitators of activities and values," recognizes environments that promote health, hobbies, goals, and belief systems. Participants reported modifying their daily living environments with increased use of technology and more time outdoors.
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
Our findings emphasize older adults' active engagement with place and strategies used to maintain healthy aging despite public health restrictions. The results also identify place-based characteristics that may help overcome stressful circumstances from older adults' perspectives. These findings inform pathways to pursue to facilitate resiliency for aging in place.
Topics: Humans; Aged; Independent Living; Health Promotion; Pandemics; Housing; Aging
PubMed: 37417468
DOI: 10.1093/geront/gnad087 -
Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Jan 2020Response and place memory systems have long been considered independent, encoding information in parallel, and involving the striatum and hippocampus, respectively. Most...
Response and place memory systems have long been considered independent, encoding information in parallel, and involving the striatum and hippocampus, respectively. Most experimental studies supporting this view used simple, repetitive tasks, with unrestrained access to spatial cues. They did not give animals an opportunity to correct a response strategy by shifting to a place one, which would demonstrate dynamic, adaptive interactions between both memory systems in the navigation correction process. In a first experiment, rats were trained in the double-H maze for different durations (1, 6, or 14 days; 4 trials/day) to acquire a repetitive task in darkness (forcing a response memory-based strategy) or normal light (placing response and place memory systems in balance), or to acquire a place memory. All rats were given a misleading shifted-start probe trial 24-h post-training to test both their strategy and their ability to correct their navigation directly or in response to negative feedback. Additional analyses focused on the dorsal striatum and the dorsal hippocampus using c-Fos gene expression imaging and, in a second experiment, reversible muscimol inactivation. The results indicate that, depending on training protocol and duration, the striatum, which was unexpectedly the first to come into play in the dual strategy task, and the hippocampus are both required when rats have to correct their navigation after having acquired a repetitive task in a cued environment. Partly contradicting the model established by Packard and McGaugh (1996, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, vol. 65), these data point to memory systems that interact in more complex ways than considered so far. To some extent, they also challenge the notion of hippocampus-independent response memory and striatum-independent place memory systems.
Topics: Animals; Cues; Hippocampus; Male; Maze Learning; Neostriatum; Neurons; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos; Rats, Long-Evans; Spatial Memory; Spatial Navigation
PubMed: 31783128
DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2019.107131 -
International Journal of Gynaecology... Aug 2020This manuscript highlights the risk that shelter‐in‐place instructions during COVID‐19 places on victims of domestic violence and serves as a call‐to‐action to...
This manuscript highlights the risk that shelter‐in‐place instructions during COVID‐19 places on victims of domestic violence and serves as a call‐to‐action to address this crisis.
PubMed: 32472696
DOI: 10.1002/ijgo.13247 -
Journal of Aging Studies Mar 2022Research has established the importance of understanding the dynamic relationship between older adults and the environments in which they are embedded. However, the...
Research has established the importance of understanding the dynamic relationship between older adults and the environments in which they are embedded. However, the meaning of place for unhoused older adults amidst an increasingly contested urban landscape is largely unknown. This exploratory study aims to further include unhoused older adults' experiences in the scholarship on aging and place by asking how unhoused adults over age 50 (1) describe their spatial patterns and experiences and (2) negotiate their relationship with common urban places. Through iterative mapping conducted in focus groups and interviews at Seattle senior centers, respondents identified how they interacted with their communities and environment. Using inductive and deductive coding of both textual and geospatial data, thematic analysis indicated that respondents: (1) experienced confinement to the downtown corridor and expulsion from surrounding areas- a phenomenon compounded by physical and subjective aging; (2) created routines amidst geographic and temporal restrictions to maximize comfort and security; (3) attempted to create residential normalcy in public places through adaptive and accommodative practices; and (4) experienced identities shaped by movement through and access to place. Current social, spatial, and political contexts of city living present many challenges for older unhoused adults. Supports that ignore people's identification with the places that are important to them are unlikely to be successful. Findings from this paper call for service, policy, and design strategies that facilitate personal agency and connection to place among unhoused people midlife and beyond.
Topics: Aged; Aging; Cities; Focus Groups; Humans; Independent Living; Residence Characteristics; Social Environment
PubMed: 35248316
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaging.2021.100997 -
Frontiers in Public Health 2022Evolving aging societies, ongoing digitalisation and circumstances of COVID-19 are changing living conditions for growing older. There is an increased urgency to view...
INTRODUCTION
Evolving aging societies, ongoing digitalisation and circumstances of COVID-19 are changing living conditions for growing older. There is an increased urgency to view public health with a focus on integrating people of all ages into the matrix of opportunities afforded in their communities. This study initiates the conceptualization of an intergenerational, age-friendly living ecosystem (AFLE) to enhance public health planning.
METHODOLOGY
A participatory study was conducted using a multi-methods approach. Six virtual co-creation sessions ( = 35-50 participants), alongside a mainly open-ended INTERGEN survey designed specifically for this study ( = 130) were conducted to conceptualize multilevel ideas for building intergenerational age-friendly places using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model. At the height of COVID-19, virtual applications (Zoom, Moodboard) and case studies, creative methods (drawing, photography, storytelling and spotlight sessions) were applied to engage academic and non-academic participants between ages 5 - 80+ years, across eight countries. Sessions were video-recorded with visual themes captured by a graphic facilitator. The survey covered issues of multigenerational interactions; intergenerational and age-friendly place features; place safety; and necessary stakeholders required for creating intergenerational and age-friendly places. Data were reflexively analyzed using a team approach to thematic analysis.
RESULTS
Findings present both the thematic analysis of Virtual Co-creation Camps (VCCs) and the INTERGEN survey results. These findings are addressed in three overarching categories that highlight the necessary characteristics of AFLEs as suggested by the VCC participants and survey respondents: (i) Sensory factors: feeling and emotion as starting points for physical design; (ii) Physical and digital factors in designing AFLE spaces and places; and (iii) Socio-cultural factors: tackling ageism and exclusion as part of the solution.
DISCUSSION
The analysis resulted in a pathway toward enhanced understandings on how multi-generations can better interact with fluctuating organizational domains (industry, voluntary, academic and public sectors) in urban and rural settings to facilitate intergenerational connectivity. Through processes of co-creation, an AFLE proof of concept and roadmap for public health planning was developed to support and provide opportunities for people as they age to reap the socioeconomic benefits of their local and virtual communities and help them become well integrated, valued and contributory members of society.
Topics: United States; Humans; Child, Preschool; Child; Adolescent; Young Adult; Adult; Middle Aged; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Ecosystem; COVID-19; Aging
PubMed: 36685002
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.996520 -
Sante Publique (Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy,... 2024The participatory action-research (PAR) carried out at the Lieu de Répit (LDR) (Place of Respite) accompanied the emergence of an innovative intervention model,...
INTRODUCTION
The participatory action-research (PAR) carried out at the Lieu de Répit (LDR) (Place of Respite) accompanied the emergence of an innovative intervention model, while placing particular importance on the participation of people suffering from psychological disorders. It also produced relevant scientific results and promoted collective empowerment.
PURPOSE OF RESEARCH
The article reports on a presentation at the conference “Recherches participatives en santé et bien-être des populations: défis et pratiques” (“Participatory Research in Community Health and Well-being: Challenges and Practices”), organized by the Institut pour la recherche en santé publique (IReSP) on March 9 and 10, 2022.
RESULTS
Three PAR actors present situated views on interpersonal relations, the organisation of PAR, and the effects of participation. Participation is facilitated by a range of contextual, human and organisational factors.
CONCLUSIONS
Although complex to implement, participatory health research is necessary for the production of new knowledge, while meeting new epistemic requirements.
Topics: Humans; Health Services Research; Public Health; Interpersonal Relations
PubMed: 38360770
DOI: No ID Found